


Do you trust me?

by Jouster



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: F/M, crime investigation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-23
Updated: 2013-07-16
Packaged: 2017-12-03 09:29:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/696805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jouster/pseuds/Jouster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I was sent to CBI for practice. When I saw Patrick Jane for the first time I considered him very charming, caring and lovely but a bit reckless and self-concentrated man. However now it seems to me that everyone, who sees him, falls under this charm of his and cannot truly see what kind of person he is. Except me?..</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Job of a dream or...

   At my faculty there is one criminology student, who was once sent to CBI for practice. This lucky person was actually me. So could you imagine my excitement when I’d realized I could see the field work for real? From the first day I tried to do my best. I even never complained about being left alone with huge piles of paperwork when everybody else got all the fun. However, seeing the work of CBI from reports was not enough, so I decided to ask around and try to get into one of the teams.

  
Once again Fate was on my side because I appeared in the right place at the right time.

  
It was on Sunday. I went to my new boss’ office to report that I’ve finally finished sorting this week’s files. And when I was about to ask if I might went back to the campus earlier, Mr. Jefferson – my boss –looked up from his cell phone and said:

  
“ Tessa, are you familiar with the rules of the CBI?”

  
“Of course I am, sir.”

  
“Then you probably know about the consequences that’ll happen if you act without thinking.”

  
“I know , sir. But I don’t quite understand what you want to say…”

  
“I just got a call from an old friend of mine.” said Mr. Jefferson. “Recently they had a lot of murders in the area and all his people are busy with cases. He sends his best team at the crime scene but they’ll probably need some help – ”

  
“And you want me to go there?” I asked anxiously. I couldn’t believe what I heard. I could finally get out of my little cupboard and see how real pros do their work.

  
“I’ve seen your file, Tessa. Your grades are excellent; you are very hardworking and devoted. And I think I can trust you on this one.” He got up and came up to me. Mr. Jefferson put his hand on my shoulder and said a bit quieter than before.”Tessa, I’m sending you to the agent Lisbon’s team. They have a consultant – Patrick Jane. He is kind of reckless…”

  
“Oh Lord… Teressa Lisbon. She is a legend!”

  
“Tessa!” Now he was a bit angry at me but still kind of worried, I wondered why. ”Listen to me. This man is probably a genius. He sees things at a whole new angle. However, he always breaks the rules. All the time! We still keep him as a consultant because he closes almost all the cases that he starts to investigate… The thing is… I know that you are true to your principles. And that is why I’m sending you to help them. ”

  
“I don’t –“ To say that I was confused… well it’s to say nothing.

  
“Tessa, can I trust you on this? Do you promise me not to break the rules of our organization and not to let Mr. Jane do it? This time our victim is an ex judge. His whole family is somehow connected with the elite of our society and if something goes wrong with this investigation, then we are all doomed.”

  
“I got it, sir. You can count on me. I won’t let you down.” I was so damn wrong…

 

 

~~~

 

When I got to the crime scene it was already around midnight. I didn’t know where to go and what to do. I ended up on the side of the road near the cornfield. It was dark and I was truly glad that I got myself a new flashlight. The field looked creepy but it was quite like me to go in a place that every normal person will gladly pass by. There was no sign of the team or sirens or… anything at all. I started to think that I’m the biggest fail–

“Right. _The biggest. Failure. Ever_. What else could I expect from such a loser as I am?” By that time I was exhausted as if I was carrying the car and not vice versa.”Firstly, I ran out of fuel! Then my tire blew up! And finally my GPS brought me in the middle of nowhere!” I stopped and looked around once again.”And there is probably a bunch of pervs wanders around somewhere near… It’ll be better to get back to the car…”

I turned around and went back following my own footsteps when suddenly I caught some kind of rustle from behind. The blood froze up in my veins.

  
_Was I wrong praying to all possible Gods to be sent to the field work?_

  
_Is my place at the desk in a small safe basement room with no windows?_

  
_Am I going to die?_

It was probably just a couple of seconds but for me it was as if I stood there for an eternity. I couldn’t move a muscle but then I brought myself together and ran as fast as a wind. Our tutors always told us to remember about cases when agents faced some madmen during their work and it did not always end well… I remembered. And I ran for my life.

 

 

TBC


	2. New turn

     I _ran_. I’m not the fastest runner though, not even a good one… In a few meters I was knocked down by someone. I must’ve hurt my head while falling, because that some-unknown-person-who-is-probably-a-creeper definitely tried to tell me something, but to me everything he said sounded like Donald Duck’s voice. My brain wasn’t ready for an emotional overload, so it decided to shut itself down without even consulting with me. In other words, I don’t remember much of that night. Nevertheless, the morning was quite full of memorable events.

When I woke up, I tried to stay still to avoid attracting unnecessary attention.  The absence of any extraneous sounds made me feel more confident and I finally opened one eye. There was no one in the room, except me. However, there was one fact that made me shiver: the room was just like a prison cell. Probably it was one. I’ve visited a couple of jails in the state as a part of my preparation for the job… You know, to be ready to face people with a serious lack of moral views; people who are able to cross the line just to please their inner demons. And then I was in a cell myself. Life is quite unexpected, don’t you think?

There was a CCTV right under the ceiling and my intention to keep my awaking unnoticed failed. Just a couple minutes later the cell door opened and a tall man in a black well-tailored suit came in. He didn’t seem to be a creeper. Moreover I considered him quite normal, even pretty and a bit elegant. He looked severe though, and it was enough to give me chills.

“Get up and follow me” said the guy. He raised his right arm pointing to the doorway. His jacket slightly rode up so that I accidently saw a badge on his belt. That little shiny thing made me feel so relieved.

“You are with the CBI, aren’t you?” I asked looking at his badge.

“Yeah, I am. Now hurry up.”

“Where are you taking me?” I got up and came up to him.

“Interrogation room” He put handcuffs on me and led out of the cell.

The guy was walking right behind me. He was tall and stunning and he had this confident and impervious expression on his face.

“So-o-o-o, why am I here? And what happened? Also why am I going to be interrogated?”

“You’ll find out soon. We need some answers, too” answered the guy, as we entered the main hall. He led me into the interrogation room. When we came in there was a woman sitting in the detective’s chair. I recognized her immediately – it was Teresa Lisbon, my new supervisor.

“Hello” I said while the same well-suited-guy handcuffed me to the table. “Are these really necessary?”

“As long as you are a suspect, these are necessary” said agent Lisbon.

“Suspect?”

“Exactly. What were you doing at the crime scene last night?”

“Looking for you actually. My name is Tessa Walters. Mr. Jefferson sent me to help your team in the last case.  As far as I remember, it was a murder of an ex-judge. You could’ve just checked my id and there would be no need for interrogation” I made the chain of the handcuffs jingle.

“There was no id, we’ve checked” said Teresa glancing at the well-suited-guy who was already texting something. Was he checking if I told the truth?

“I must’ve left it in my car-“

“There were no sign of cars anywhere near the cornfield, except ours.”

“How else could I get there?” I was already annoyed.”Call Mr. Jefferson! He’ll prove that I’m telling the truth. He’ll probably send you my photo.”

“I’m already checking it, boss” said the well-suited guy. Suddenly someone knocked on the one-way mirror, and both of them left the room leaving me completely alone.

Mr. Jefferson will prove my identity and even alibi and everything will end fine. Nevertheless, _what the hell happened to my car?_

The door opened and agents came back but that time there were three of them. The new guy was a tall blond in a three piece suit. He came in first and gave me a big warm smile.

“Miss Walters, Mr. Jefferson confirmed your identity. And we are sorry that we took you for a criminal. But circumstances were quite misleading, don’t you think?” asked the blond. He reclined on the table and looked me in the eye. “I just want to ask you one question while our dear friend Rigsby uncuffs you.” The well-suited-guy – Rigsby – freed my wrist from the cuffs and sent me an apologetic smile.

“Sorry for knocking you out” whispered Rigsby. _So he was the one who knocked me down…_

“It doesn’t matter now. Back to my question-” interrupted the blond.”I want to know if you saw anything out of the ordinary while you were wondering around the cornfield? Some barrels maybe?”

“No, I didn’t notice anything… It was too dark to actually see a thing. Why? Was there something that could’ve helped this case?” I wondered if I missed something truly important.

“We don’t know” said Lisbon. “We thought that the murderer was still at the crime scene and, as soon as we found you, we were on our way back to the office. And just a couple minutes the cornfield blew up, destroying the body and all the evidence… It also took away seven our colleagues. We were lucky to leave the field before the explosion.”

There was a dead silence for a moment. Then the blond guy spoke. “Let’s finish all this introduction stuff and get back to work, shall we?” he stood up. “You already know Lisbon and Rigsby-” suddenly a voice from the main hall called Lisbon, saying that it was important. Rigsby sent me a friendly smile and nodded his head in a greeting then he also left the room. Jane followed them with his eyes and turned back to me. “I’m Patrick Jane.” he took my arm and kissed it. “ _Can’t wait to start working with you._ ”


	3. FIRST DAY ON THE JOB or TESSA ALWAYS FINDS TROUBLES

At the office I met the team and told them everything from that night. Cho – the pretty Korean guy – said that one CCTV caught my car on its way to south from the crime scene, so it was probably stolen by our killer. It wasn’t the best news I ever got but at least they knew I’m innocent and most importantly telling the truth. Van Pelt – a young pretty redheaded woman – was very kind to offer me a ride to the campus, so I could get some rest but I refused and asked them to tell me more about the case. I couldn’t help noticing a slight approval at their faces. I knew this team was very devoted to the job, even thought it had more complaints against it than all departments all together.

“We’ve been at the crime scene probably for an hour. So everything we have got is in this file. Although I really doubt that his family will tell us anything relevant. As far as I know they are not just elite, they are more like a cherry from the top of the priceless cake,” Lisbon handed a thin folder to Van Pelt. “The victim, as you know, is an ex-judge – Viktor Thomson – 68 years old, married, had a huge estate in the Hollywood Hills. We asked the relatives to let us ask them a few questions but they are “ _too devastated with everything that happened_ ”, so we are on our own.”

“But as far as we don’t have the body and any particular evidence, it is not possible to know anything about what happened,” Red-headed woman opened the folder. “The file is also almost empty. Don’t we have any suspects? Judge’s family, enemies or the people he put behind the bars…”

“While examining the body, I’ve noticed that there was a stable smell of alcohol– “said Jane from his sofa. _The guy had a personal sofa…_

“Yeah, the forensic investigator said that it might’ve been an alcohol poisoning–” I interrupted him while looking in the folder over Van Pelt’s shoulder.

“ _Before I was rudely interrupted_ , I was about to say,” said Jane with a slight irritation. “That, apart from alcohol, I’ve noticed some cheap female perfume. I suppose Mrs. Thomson fancies something more elegant or at least expensive… ”

“This means there’s a woman involved. Hooker or something,” concluded Rigsby.

“We’ll never find her. We are in California, remember?” said Lisbon.

“It also could’ve been a man. We can’t narrow the list of suspects so easily,” I said looking at her. I thought that I should’ve stopped interrupting but I wanted to show them that I could be a part of their team and actually help in solving that case.

“What do you mean? Are you assuming the judge was into boys and there could be a man, who wears cheap female perfume?” asked Rigsby, and the whole team looked at me. There was complete silence; they waited for an answer. I looked at my new colleagues and saw a sign of doubt in their eyes _._ They probably thought I’m talking gibberish.

 “Why do you think the perfume belonged to a man?” It was the salvatory voice when I didn’t have anything to say. It was Jane. His voice and his insightful but mocking eyes led me out of stupor.

 “Well, in Soviet Russia there was a tendency among alcoholics to drink cheap perfumes when they didn’t have enough money to buy normal alcohol. So there is probably no need to search for a hooker. If you ask me, we need to look for a drunker, who was once put in jail by our judge or who is able to kill for money or booze.”

“Actually that makes sense,” said Cho. ”There were bruises and cuts on the victim’s neck, arms and body. He struggled but despite being quite tall and well-fed he was killed. So our perpetrator must be a big and strong guy. Also the forensic says he died from asphyxia – and we all know how strong one should be to murder such a tough guy.”

“Good thought, Tessa,” Lisbon said. Lisbon was lingering on the table, she got up and went to get her coat. “You, Jane and Cho will search the judge’s office. Van Pelt, you’ll make the list of suspects. Rigsby and I will go to the victim’s house and try to talk to his family.”

“But I’ll be more useful if I go with you to interrogate the judge’s relatives,” exclaimed Jane.

“No, Jane. It’s the boss’ order not to let you near them in case you’d say or do anything to provoke them to kick us out without helping the case.”

Jane rolled his eyes and got up from his sofa. He straightened his jacket and moved towards the door. While passing me by, he winked and gave me a smile.

On the way to the judge’s office I tried to process all I saw and heard that day. Lisbon’s words proved the things Mr. Jefferson told me before I got here – Jane breaks the rules and behaves as he wishes in order to show off and please himself. I thought it’d be a tough internship and I was so damn right.

\+ + +

A few hours later we were in the judge’s office. The place definitely belonged to a pompous, ignorant and selfish man. The cabinet was huge. The walls were decorated with red velvet fabric; there were portraits of the judge all over them. The judge’s PA did not want to let us in. Still, we got our chance to look around.

Cho stayed in the hall to question the PA, while Jane and I were in the office. It was the first time we stayed together. I am not sure, if it was for real or just my imagination, but he changed. Somehow Jane looked different; I felt it and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

While wandering around the office he glanced at me now and then. Every time our eyes met he smiled casually, looked away and continued messing the judge’s stuff up. From the ever beginning he kept calling me ‘Newbie’; so I thought he was just curious about my ways of investigating, but no. There was something else; _something_ that changed in him, when we stayed alone. And that _Something_ was dark.

That time I remembered the sleepover I had with my friends at campus when Ellen – my best friend – told us about that feeling she had every time she saw her chemistry teacher. Gorgeous he was: well fit, tall, with dark curly hair, sharp cheekbones and a beautiful but indescribable eye color and also that confident and demanding gaze of his... Ellen said it felt like nothing else mattered, like the only thing her mind told her was to get on her knees right in front of him. She was so under his influence that tried to avoid meeting him, because his ‘dominant aura’ was too overwhelming for her to bear.  Maybe she was exaggerating, I am not sure.

Myself, I do not believe in things like auras but that time I was an inch close to believing.

I was flicking through the files on the table; I looked up for a second to see what Jane was doing. I saw him sitting in a luxurious, leather, swivel chair and gazing in my direction. His arms were on the armrests, legs spread and his gaze was fixed on me. His expression was completely unreadable. Suddenly Cho entered the room. In the same second Jane got back to his normal self: legs crossed, laid-back and deep in his own thoughts. I was surprised by Cho’s appearance so I dropped the papers on the floor. Jane looked at me as if he just noticed me and raised an eyebrow, then turned to Cho.

“Cho, there is no sign that judge actually worked in here. Probably, this place was for showing off and flaunting and our guy had been doing all his business elsewhere. Ask his PA. And we will need an access to all his files and personal servers,” Jane said.

“Well, his PA refused to give us anything. The family also refused to cooperate. Lisbon said that we are done for today. I’m off to request an order. Jane could you give Tessa a lift?”

“Sure,” mumbled Jane. Cho said “Goodbye” and left the room. The room was silent for a moment.

“Hurry up, Newbie, I have things to do,” said Jane getting up and pointing at the door. He half-smiled and moved towards the exit. _Something_ was back again. I felt awkward, so I intended to get out of there as soon as possible just to be far away from this new side of Patrick Jane that I had noticed that day.

**Author's Note:**

> Any kind of feedback is very welcome :)


End file.
